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If a fiscal cliff deal isn't reached soon, we'll all wake up on Jan. 1 with higher taxes and lower government spending. One way or another, you'll likely have a bit less cash to spend, so the next few weeks would be a good time to figure out where you can cut your spending to compensate.

According to a nationwide study, 57% of respondents own life insurance, but only 28% feel extremely confident in their understanding of life insurance. Today, Alden Wicker shares a very personal story from her childhood, which drove home to her just how important it is for parents to have life insurance.

After a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy, victims are understandably desperate to receive relief funds, but they often don't know the best way to get them. DailyFinance is here to help, with this list of programs designed to help you rebuild after the storm.

Superstorm Sandy is expected to cost a staggering $50 billion, with as many as 200,000 claims for wind damage and 20,000 claims for flood damage filed by consumers. The sooner those claims are filed the better, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone will get what they ask for.

When Sandy struck New York City and other major East Coast population centers, it immediately vaulted onto the list of the most expensive storms in U.S. history. Repairing the damage will ultimately cost tens of billions of dollars. Here's how Sandy stacks up to other devastating Atlantic storms.

With just five years left before you retire, you need to begin solidifying your plans. Make sure you're still on track, but also nail down where you'll live and how you'll meet your health care needs. Here's how:

Frankenstorm is coming, but let's assume you did the right thing in getting insurance to protect yourself against heavy weather and floods. If the storm hits you, your next challenge may be getting the insurance company to pony up the cash instead of trying to deny your claim.

During more than two decades of helping people learn to manage their money, Jean Chatzky has picked up a host of financial maxims that she falls back on over and over again. Why? Because they make sense. They're funny. They're memorable. And they work.

In 2011, the average American wedding cost $26,501. With that kind of money on the line, and considering all the unforeseeable circumstances that could wreck your carefully laid plans, it's no surprise that a growing number of companies are offering wedding insurance.

There are many roads to financial security, but whatever path you follow, there are some mandatory steps everyone ought to take along the way. Alexa von Tobel, founder of LearnVest.com, cuts through the thicket of advice to give us her essential keys to sound money management.

Every January, we plan to make changes, and we often don't succeed. Let's make this New Year's different: Here are seven fairly simple resolutions recommended by the financial experts for getting you on a firmer fiscal footing in 2012.

The woes Social Security faces have generated plenty of worried talk lately, but even if nothing changes, it'll be solvent until 2036. But Medicare, the other major government program that retirees rely on, is on course for financial disaster years sooner.
That program, of course, is Medicare, and the funding situation for the portion of its benefits that retirees receive looks even scarier than Social Security's prospects right now.

If a car tops your teen's holiday gift wish-list, give as much consideration to insurance as you do the car's make and model and the debate over whether to buy new or used. And brace yourself for insurance premium sticker shock. Here are some ways you can mitigate the cost of insuring your teen driver.

Here's yet another reason to watch what you say and do online: Insurance companies are already surfing social media sites to get the scoop about their customers, and what their data-miners find may soon be compiled into a new way to rate you as a risk: a social networking score.

When most of us buy life insurance, we're thinking about one thing: Making sure our families are taken care of after we're gone. But in this season of giving, you might also want to think about setting up a policy to take care of your favorite charity.

Amid all the good cheer, the holiday season hides a sobering number of financial pitfalls -- and not just ones that involve overspending. Here's a look at seven dangers you might not have considered, along with steps you can take to make sure your holidays are more happy than hazardous.

Most of us have assets worth insuring -- our homes, our cars, our health. Celebrities are no different, but they must protect their most important assets -- themselves. So who's buying insurance on their fingers, legs and even smiles and hair? Check out our gallery:

If you're very sick and not very wealthy in America, your best move may be to flee the country -- because you'd be better off in any other first world nation. Otherwise, expect to pay through the nose and possibly wind up deep in debt, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.

It's bad enough that we fork over gobs of money for all kinds of necessities, such as our mortgage payments, groceries, gas, and electricity. But it's a real shame when we fork over dollars needlessly, buying things we don't need -- like many kinds of insurance.

Obese people do not just risk their own health; their health problems cripple the economy. GDP would be given a boost if the number of fat people fell sharply. The Obama administration has not made an attack on obesity part of its stimulus program. Maybe it should.

A breast cancer diagnosis can be like an earthquake in the life of the patient and her family, but the medical community is there to help guide them. What's often hard to find is a monetary lifeline for those in danger of getting washed away by the financial tidal wave that can follow.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among American women: 12% will develop it at some point in their lives, and at that point, the health battle begins. But those women often must fight one a second front as well, dealing with the multiple threats cancer poses to their financial well-being.

There's something about life insurance that just freaks some people out -- we'd prefer not to consider our mortality. But September is life insurance awareness month, and lack of knowledge breeds fuzzy thinking. So we've sorted some facts from fictions and debunked an even dozen myths about life insurance.

The reverse mortgage was invented to help seniors facing economic hardship access the equity in their homes. But these loan products are complicated, expensive and ripe for abuse, which lead a reader named Fred to ask DailyFinance's Laura Rowley for some advice. Here's what she told him:

So, let's assume you did the right thing in getting insurance to protect yourself against those times when Mother Nature comes knocking. Your next challenge may be getting the insurance company to pony up the cash instead of trying to deny your claim.